Our President realizes that comprehension of language is subjective. The GOP’s use of semantics makes interpreting their words nearly impossible.
President Obama knows the difference between a hard and soft science so he uses the language of the hard science-mathematics, whenever possible.
President Obama always said first the $250,000 of income for a couple wouldn’t be taxed in his Presidential campaign as illustrated in the article “Obama Details Lines of Battle in Budget Plan, and on Libya”.
President Obama always said he wanted $1.6 trillion in revenue. He settled for $620 billion which the derisive article “Shocker: Dems Want $1 Trillion More In Taxes!” illustrates.
President Obama took the high road regarding the recent fiscal cliff negotiations. He won the election stating he wanted to raise taxes on income over $250,000 for couples. He accepted $450,000 for couples. That is an 80% increase. $200,000-80% of $250,00 was given as a concession by our President. Another calculation is that President Obama wanted $1.6 trillion in revenue, but agreed to $620 billion, which is roughly a concession of 61.25%. President Obama gave up a staggering amount in either calculation and did he gain anything for us?
President Obama hasn’t a clear idea what to expect from the GOP power brokers. They make vague remarks with enormous amounts of wiggle room and then parse phrases excessively. They depend on this because their agenda is diametrically opposed to President’s whose agenda recently won the national election. The GOP is wise to hide behind vague statements with this reality staring them squarely in the face.
How can I make these assertions? McConnell one day makes a proposal only later in same day to filibuster it. How can you understand McConnell’s words after this display? Boehner tops that. He has a Plan B that he touts only to have it not even pass through the House of Representatives that he controls? Also, he says that Erskine Bowles agrees with a GOP proposal. Then we find out that Erskine Bowles doesn’t agree to that. How can you understand Boehner’s words after these displays?
When you were a kid how would you trade bubblegum cards? Would you start off with a fair deal or expect your rival to try to shaft you and consequentially negotiate more aggressively? If you expected the worst from your foe wouldn’t that negative expectation force you to treat him belligerently–if only as a defensive gesture?
How would our President’s compromise be received by the GOP? President Obama couldn’t be sure that his magnanimous gesture would placate the GOP controlled House and if Boehner didn’t forego the majority of the majority rule it wouldn’t. This rule, which is referred to as the “Hastert rule”, is described in the article “Was Boehner’s Fiscal Cliff End Run Past GOP The New Normal?”
Boehner should get credit for this, but don’t think that Boehner will be making this concession on a regular basis. If he attempted to do so he wouldn’t last as Speaker as this gambit led to–as the article states “renewed calls for his ouster as speaker.”
These following three articles we will illustrate that McConnell proposed bills only to filibuster his own legislation and for good measure Boehner prevaricated about his Plan B and an alleged agreement with Simpson Bowles.
Let’s be objective. Person A says to person B let’s make this xyz deal. Everything is agreed upon and hope reigns. Then person A pulls the xyz deal back. What would you think of person A?
That is what happened recently as the article “McConnell Filibusters His Own Bill To Lift Debt Ceiling” illustrates.
It is not only the GOP Senate leader. Let’s examine Speaker John Boehner’s activity. He purported that Erskine Bowles agreed to what Boehner labels the “Bowles plan”, but Bowles says no such agreement was made with Boehner as detailed in the article “11 shocking, true facts about Simpson-Bowles”.
And Boehner said that the deal he and President Obama agreed upon wasn’t good, but his Plan B was better. The trouble was Boehner couldn’t even get his own party to vote for it which led many people to wonder why he delayed the negotiations as detailed in the article “Boehner’s Plan B fiscal cliff bill pulled amid dissension in GOP caucus”.
When you want to get the best of a deal it is wise to make the other think they had better take the deal quickly. We’ve all had real estate agents tell us we had to buy instantly because there were other deals being offered.
Who thinks the GOP in the House will rapidly agree with President Obama about anything, including our debt? It is well known that we also have the continuing resolution, the sequestration and the raising of the debt limit looming in our very near future. Compromising with our President will be required from the House GOP in these matters.
We need fair mediators in these forthcoming negotiations. We’ve seen Boehner try to force his unruly caucus cooperate, but we can’t consistently depend on that.
